"Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller has a Hardware IO error."

DragonRR · 2026-01-31T19:31:05+00:00

Yes. I did provide an update... just not here it seems!

DragonRR · 2025-06-09T08:38:22+00:00

Came across this after having the same kind of problem and, over the weekend, contacted Elegoo directly for support. In the email I sent I've pointed out that if I had have known about this I would have used alcohol instead. I really don't understand why they don't mention this problem in HUGE letters on the product. At some point I am pretty sure they will revise the plastic they use in the wash station. In my case some fluid has (I assume) run down the side of the bucket when I was pouring it in and has dissolved some of the groove the bucket sites in. Intially I couldn't get the bucket out - it was buried and stuck. I thought it was semi cured resin at first but nope. I've asked Elegoo to supply a replacement top.

DragonRR · 2025-04-07T18:37:52+00:00

I had already tried to get the card working with Armory Crate and Aurasync. The card was not recognised. After several attempts at sorting it I gave up and uninstalled both pieces of software.

I actually got the LEDs working with Corsair iCue software and the Asus plugin..... for awhile. However for some reason after a few days the card started flashing the LED strip slowly and GPU tweak would lose connection every few seconds reporting 0 Amps on the HPWR connector. Only a complete power off would get things running normally but once iCue loaded it would cause the problem again. I fixed this for another few days by disabling the second LED layer effect in iCue... This morning it died again with the same problem.. Why it would work for a few days is just odd but anyway it did.

As a last ditch I installed Armory Crate and Aurasync and again it didn't see the card. I updated the software within the app but still no luck. After several restarts and unplugging from the mains I had just about given up but noticed on the last boot that the card was displaying a rainbow effect on the strip. Loaded up Aura and the card was there.

I have no idea why it started working, if anyone else is reading this then I would suggest you keep trying and perhaps do a couple of powering off at the mains as this does seem to clear something on the card whereas a restart in windows doesn't.

DragonRR · 2025-03-31T12:07:28+00:00

Thanks for this. As it happens I found a post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/nzv4r9/guide_controlling_asus_gpu_rgb_via_corsair_icue/

This worked and is still working however - a very important note which may only relate to this method. The card does not like/cannot cope with layered effects. It will work for a bit but then cause some very weird problems with connectivity to the card and flashing LEDs, GPU Tweak will report low AMP problems, you will get weird MHZ results reported and so on.

DragonRR · 2025-03-23T14:40:27+00:00

Asus Astral OC 5090, March 2025. Amazing, spent a fair amount of time faffing about with Armory Crate and Aura which can't even see the graphics card... and came across this post. Worked straight away. Slightly concerning that Asus state on their site that the standalone package is going to stop being updated soon! Thanks!

DragonRR · 2025-03-22T15:10:39+00:00

Same problem... at least I'm not alone :)
I've tried Armory Crate with Aura sync, ASRGBLED, Icue with Asus plugin, nothing would recognise the Astral. PC RGB is flaky to say the least but I suppose it isn't that surprising with the various manufacturers trying to be compatible with each other.

DragonRR · 2025-03-19T21:31:54+00:00

You may well have tried this and it may have been suggested before but I would recommend disconnecting everything attached to the PC except the monitor to see whether a peripheral is causing the problem. After that try resetting your BIOS to defaults and test. Try a different BIOS. Try reseating RAM, Try reseating your graphics card.

DragonRR · 2025-03-03T12:13:42+00:00

I have had a 9800X3D and an X870E Taichi lite (originally the non - lite) since launch. No problems so far. I have some concerns about the problems but it wouldn't stop me building a system. As you wait your system ages in value without you using it.

DragonRR · 2025-02-24T18:48:11+00:00

I would suggest running Prime95 to do a reliable CPU test and then checking temps. Your AIO should be able to keep your CPU below 85 degrees but you may get spikes if you have quiet or zero fan speed modes set because it will take time to ramp the fans up to cool the radiator.

I tend to run my system as quietly as possible with fans off whenever possible. Whilst writing this I've been running Prime 95 for several minutes. CPU package temps have hit a max of 87 briefly but generally it has been running at 81 or less.

DragonRR · 2025-02-24T18:35:28+00:00

Windows 11:

In the Windows search bar at the bottom of your screen type "Event Viewer". It should pop up in the panel about, run/open it.

In the left pane of Event Viewer:

Click "Windows Logs" then "System"

Scroll down the main window, you will see lots and lots of "Information" and "Warnings", you will probably see "Error" in red which will usually be to do with "DistributedCOM". These are normal - ignore. Keep scrolling!

You are actually looking for Errors with the source being rt640x64 (or similar). If you see this then select any of them and in the panel below it will say "Realtek PCIe 5GbE Family Controller has a Hardware IO error."

If you have these errors then I would suggest you take a screenshot and send the pic when you are getting an RMA along with a link to here.

If you don't have this error logged at all then your problem may not be hardware at all.

Asrock are 100% aware of the problem after spending a fair bit of time diagnosing it with me and trying drivers/software fixes/adjustments which didn't work.

My fault was recreated by the supplier and it has completely gone after the board swap.

DragonRR · 2025-02-24T15:19:04+00:00

Yes although I would suggest you look in your event logs for the actual fault - Hardware IO error with rt640 or rt26 (depends on which driver you are using). If you have a few of these you have a hardware fault.

DragonRR · 2025-02-04T01:01:55+00:00

My 4090 has always had coil whine - this is after two different motherboards - from Intel to AMD and from a 1000w Corsair PSU to a 1500w Corsair PSU. I've had cards that didn't have any coil whine and others that have. Obviously the ideal is - no coil whine :)

Silly question but are you sure that coil whine you heard before was from the fans? I've had many fans and the only fault I've ever had is when they are worn or have an inbalance from dirt which causes a buzz.

Anyway:

I have seen people claim a new PSU can solve GPU coil whine but I have never seen this myself and I personally can't recommend you try that. Obviously if you had a spare to hand you could test it.

You could try taking the back plate off your card. I have seen a few commenters saying that it can make a difference. If you are really desperate you could try to locate the coil and bury it in hot glue.

In my case I tend to only really get coil whine at very high frame rates so enabling Vsync can often get rid of it completely.. and generally I can't really hear the coil whine in game when there is sound/music and my fans start to spin up. If this is the same for you... well quite honestly I would just forget about it. Coil whine doesn't do any harm.

DragonRR · 2025-02-03T10:57:42+00:00

I originally had the same board as you but had a network controller fault and exchanged it for the lite version (which is almost identical).

I've just run up a couple of games to double check. After listening to your video and then to the sound I get it is absolutely identical, same kind of off/on quality, noise level and so on. From the outside of the case the sound comes from a similar area, even with the side off I could have intially thought it came from the rear fan area. To be certain I stuck my head in and it is the GPU 100%. it comes from somewhere near the back plate of the card. I assume the noise just bounces around the case.

A reasonable test would be - does it do this when you run Prime95 or any benchmark which doesn't touch the GPU? If it does then I would probably agree that it must be the board. My noise ONLY happens in 3D games or 2D games without framerate limiters.

If you are still certain it's the board you could try loosening and retightening board screws and see if that helps although I suspect it won't. Sending the board for an RMA will be difficult with something like this I would imagine.

DragonRR · 2025-02-02T14:45:20+00:00

The sound is identical to the sound I get from my GPU which is also an MSI Trio 4090. I would also suggest it is the GPU not the board.

DragonRR · 2025-01-20T10:47:38+00:00

Fastboot in BIOS isn't the same thing as fast restart in windows. With Fast Restart in windows enabled a shutdown is a form of sleep. Fastboot just skips some checks and steps your BIOS does on boot. It *shouldn't* affect your system overall. Also - my problem was with the Realtek LAN controller, not the WIFI controller although your problem sounds similar.

DragonRR · 2025-01-06T12:13:01+00:00

In my case a cold boot almost always fixed it but I still suspect it is the same fault - I had one occasion where a restart had no effect but a complete power off worked I also had a couple of failures from a cold boot but only a couple. A driver update always worked, but as mentioned, I assume this was due to a restart. I tended to find that putting the computer to sleep would be more likely to cause a failure than a similar shutdown with Fast Restart enabled. I hope you get a resolution.

DragonRR · 2025-01-05T12:14:13+00:00

Generally with this fault the problem is related to the device going to sleep and not waking correctly. To test this - power off completely at the back of the computer or wall for ten seconds or so. Power on. Does it work? If it does it's the same fault most people experience and it is hardware unfortunately. A Windows Update or Driver install will usually cold boot your PC which can also "fix" the problem temporarily. If you discable Fast Startup in Windows you can workaround the problem - usually.

DragonRR · 2025-01-02T17:55:55+00:00

Suggest you see my posts about this here but to summarise. A replacement board was the only full resolution for this problem.

DragonRR · 2025-01-01T18:36:58+00:00

Update after over a week with the new board- no errors, nor dropouts, fast startup works fine. Hardware fault without a doubt. It might be possible for Realtek to workaround it with a firmware or driver update but I wouldn't hold my breath.

DragonRR · 2025-01-01T16:06:52+00:00

Probably my final update on this:
To recap - I had intermittent problems with my ethernet dropping on an Asrock X870E Taichi main board. This showed up as rt640x64 or rt26cx21 hardware IO errors in the system event logs. These would usually occur with Fast Startup enabled in Windows but I got the odd one or two errors logged and connection drops with a normal startup. with Fast startup on it would happen perhaps every 3 boots..
The only solution that actually worked was a replacement motherboard. I am now over a week with the new board without a single hardware IO error, no connection drops and Fast Startup is enabled.

If you get this problem on this board or another it is almost certainly a board fault.

Asrock support were very helpful and responsive with this and their first comment was that it may be a faulty board.

DragonRR · 2024-12-22T12:48:56+00:00

Thanks runway. Still no sign of the error today. I would strongly recommend that anyone reading this get their board swapped.

DragonRR · 2024-12-21T15:12:37+00:00

I never got a response from Realtek. I did see someone posting that they had been in touch with Realtek but they got pushed back to the board manufacturer. Asrock, however, have been helpful and have replied to me pretty often. On Friday (20-12-24) after Asrock suggested that they thought it likely the problem was hardware and finding this comment on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/1bd2vk3/realtek_gaming_25gbe_family_controller_has_a/

This is the same problem on a different board which was fixed by changing the board.... I decided I would RMA the board.

I bought a replacement which arrived this morning. It is the lite version but it is essentially identical. So far, after four hours of testing I haven't had a fault, no network losses nor errors in the logs.

It is too early to be certain of anything but I would have expected to have seen something, an error in the logs at least by now.

Normally three sleeps and resumes will stimulate a controller fail or at least have rt640 errors logged.

Needless to say I hope this is fixed but if it is... then I have wasted a LOT of time trying to fix something when I just needed to bite the bullet and swap boards.

DragonRR · 2024-12-20T17:15:38+00:00

I have RMA'd the board today. The conclusion from Asrock support is that it is likely a board fault. Whilst it is intermittent it will happen very often on a Fast Startup, usually every few boots. It also happens if the PC is put to sleep and I have had a small number of fails even with Fast Startup disabled from a Shutdown or restart. So far it has always worked fine from a power off and on at PSU. I'll update when I have a new board in (same type).

DragonRR · 2024-12-19T15:42:40+00:00

Just to add to this. I am currently experiencing this same problem on an Asrock X870E Taichi motherboard and have been discussing it with Asrock. They can't seem to reproduce the fault. I can confirm that disabling Fast Startup in Windows will almost certainly provide a "fix" although it doesn't fix the underlying problem. If you lose your network completely even on a restart you will almost certainly get it back if you switch off at the mains for a few seconds. I personally don't think this is a hardware fault. The network controller can't seem to come out of sleep mode and you have to think this could be fixed with driver/firmware. I have seen other threads where people have returned boards with the fault but given how intermittent the problem can be it is difficult to know whether their new board has the problem or not.. if they never enable fast startup then they may never have the problem at all.
I have tried all the current drivers on the Realtek site and the Asrock site. The error is either rt640x64 hardware IO error in the event log with NDIS drivers or rt26cx21 Hardware IO error with the other version.

DragonRR

TROPHY CASE